Sky Run by Alex Shearer Page A

christened the place Ignorance – in a tongue-in-cheek, ironical sort of way – and we’ve been here ever since: lotus eaters.’
    â€˜Lotus –?’ I said.
    â€˜It means, young lady, that we do nothing but enjoy ourselves, all day long. We neither reap nor sow, nor toil, nor spin. We simply enjoy life, don’t we, Tania?’
    â€˜To the full.’
    â€˜We don’t know how to do anything practical and we don’t get our hands dirty and we don’t do anything we don’t want to.’
    â€˜We leave all that to the Drools.’
    Peggy was looking as sour as the lemon slice in her drink. I knew from old that if there was one thing Peggy did not approve of, it was doing nothing.
    â€˜And so where did
they
come from?’ she said. ‘The workers?’
    â€˜The Drools? We brought a few with us. They had their own little island but couldn’t make a living there – terribly barren, terribly poor place. And the rest of them just followed later. And they do seem to breed at quite a rate. But they’re marvellous little people really. No resentment or envy in them. Do anything for you.’
    Peggy looked at Reynold.
    â€˜And you’re sure about that?’ she said.
    â€˜I’m sorry?’
    â€˜No resentment –?’
    â€˜Oh, absolutely none. It’s not in their character. Just love looking after you. Born to serve, you see. That’s Drools.’
    â€˜And what if the money runs out?’ Peggy went on. Our hosts plainly didn’t like her questions, which seemed to be making them uncomfortable.
    â€˜Well, I don’t think that’s about to happen any time soon, is it, dear?’ Tania said. And Reynold let out a hearty, if somewhat forced and artificial, laugh.
    â€˜No. It is rather hard to get through a few billion,’ he said. ‘No sooner have you spent some than your interest and dividends come in, and you wind up with even more. In fact, what people don’t realise about an awful lot of money, is that it just multiplies, all on its own. It’s quite impossible to spend it all. So, run out of it – no, I don’t think that’s about to happen. Ah, that sounds like the door, darling. Our first guests must be arriving. I’ll ring for a Drool to bring some drinks.’
    The villa began to fill up with more fine and elegant people. Whether they were also wealthy or whether they too lived on Reynold’s billions, I didn’t know and felt it would be rude to ask.
    We were quite the celebrities at that gathering – or quite the novelties anyway. I did wonder if all these rich, elegant people, with no work to do, were not more than a little bored with their lives. But maybe not. There were stylish sky-yachts moored up at the coast, some of them bigger than mansions; perhaps they travelled, went sky-skiing, went deep sky-fishing, or amused themselves in any of a hundred expensive ways.
    â€˜I don’t like it here.’ Martin came over to me. ‘Do you like it?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜There’s something creepy about the place.’
    â€˜I know.’
    â€˜What is it?’
    â€˜Menace,’ I told him. ‘Unease.’
    â€˜No, it’s not that.’
    â€˜What then?’
    â€˜I don’t know. Something in the air. And how can they stand having nothing to do? And not knowing how to do anything, or how anything works. I like knowing how things work. Don’t you?’
    â€˜Yes, I guess I do.’ Though I hadn’t really thought of it before.
    Peggy got away from a conversation she plainly didn’t want to be involved in.
    â€˜We’ll go soon,’ she said.
    â€˜What about the boat?’
    â€˜They’ll have done it by now. It’s a couple of hours’ work at most.’
    But Reynold overheard her.
    â€˜Oh, I really don’t think so. Your boat won’t be ready for days. Smashed solar engine, wasn’t it?